20/02/03

That a young clergy person and peers, just starting out on their ministry, should be burdened with the responsibility for the mass desertion of people from the pews of churches was way, way, way (yea! thrice times way) over the top.

If anyone is to be blamed for trying to modernise our way to fuller churches it is surely Peter's generation, with their guitars, new hymn books and Biblical translations of every shade and colour.

But we don't want to blame Peter or our young colleague from Wiltshire. We want to face this sad situation of desertion of pews in a mature way. But here in 2003, as two parsons - one at the end and one at the beginning of this privileged calling - we simply want to say how disappointed we were with the article, to say how much we are enjoying the BBC2 series A Country Parish, and to say that however much Peter and ourselves enjoy the language of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, we also recognise that change is always taking place.

Incidentally, is the non-stereotypical vicar of the fifth paragraph none other than Peter Mullen we wonder? - Revs Lynn Purvis and Alan Powers, North Tees Hospital.

YOUR Reverend Peter Mullen is a peculiar fellow. He dislikes his bishops in general (Echo, Jan 28) and that of Canterbury in particular (Sept 3) and is gung-ho for Dubya Bush and war with Iraq.

He has the temerity to refer to people who do not see the world in his light as nutters and to disparage such eminent members of the National Secular Society as Dr Francis Cricket of DNA fame and Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University.

He is a philosophical fascist and would have been perfectly at home in Franco's Spain or Pinochet's Chile. - Willis Collinson, Durham City.

RUTH CAMPBELL

RUTH Campbell slighted the villagers of Thornton-le-Beans and insulted (which is the fashionable thing to do) church-going (Echo, Feb 13).

Perhaps she should have found out the big difference between a Chapel of Ease in a cemetery and a parish church before putting pen to paper.

Did she consider that there could be a parish church in the village as well?

A Chapel of Ease (not a church) was placed in cemeteries for funerals, especially of those who were remote to the parish. A parish church speaks for itself.

All of which points to her article being a load of nonsense.

Will it apply to her other snippets as well I wonder? - R Willis, Egglescliffe

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

A DOCUMENT from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on responses to the White Paper on Regional Governance shows that, of the general public, only seven per cent are in favour of regional government.

The North-East was the second most apathetic, only contributing 4.6 per cent of the survey's overall responses.

This doesn't correlate with North-East Assembly chairman Tony Flynn's statement: "There is evidence of a groundswell of support for a directly elected assembly and positive signs that the North is at the forefront of this process."

We are being offered a toothless, ineffective talking shop with a different set of politicians arguing over how to share out the same amount of money. An assembly with no real powers, more bureaucracy and more officials is the last thing that businesses or the people of the North want. The hot air produced will have a serious effect on global warming and, following this latest evidence, the Government is going to need so much spin that it will need to employ redundant Australian ball-twister, Shane Warne, to sell this 'dead parrot'. - Neil Herron, Sunderland.

EDUCATION

THE behaviour of young people in society is rightly attracting media attention. Our schools are, arguably, the only institutions left which have any hope of moulding young people's characters and attitudes. Significant numbers of parents neither have the will nor the ability.

In the past, some parents who had problems with schools immediately turned to local newspapers in the expectation that they would automatically 'batter' the teachers. Sadly, this was often the case, but I am glad that newspapers are now more supportive of teachers.

Assaults on teachers, both verbal and physical, occur daily and in numbers that should shock. Such events undermine the authority of the teachers concerned and are an abuse of all that schools represent.

Schools are under pressure from the Government and local authorities not to permanently exclude pupils on the grounds that their right to education in a mainstream setting is paramount.

The truth is that the cost of educating such disruptive and 'dangerous' pupils somewhere other than in a school is so crippling that it is preferable for teachers and other pupils to be put at risk.

Schools and teachers must be supported. Do we really want to see aggressive, undisciplined children mocking what is perhaps the only answer to solving one of society's major concerns? - Name supplied, Teesside.

FOOTBALL MANAGERS

IS IT any wonder football clubs are insolvent when we look at the type of person chosen to manage these businesses?

Usually it is an uneducated ex-player with no previous experience of man management and not an iota of business experience, or it is someone who has previously managed a football club but has been sacked as a failure.

During the game the manager can be seen standing on the touchline furiously chewing gum. Afterwards, interviewed on TV, he will be telling us that his team is far too good to be relegated: "Y'know wot I mean?"

I'll be at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. - Frank Boyle, Peterlee.